Vote to keep polls will cost $1 million
Although more people vote absentee, the County Council sees problems with mail-only elections.

By Jeff Switzer    Everett Herald     28 June 2005

Snohomish County residents who like voting at the polls won't be forced into voting by mail, despite a trend statewide toward mail-in ballots.

The County Council on Monday authorized $1 million for new voting machine printers required by state law. The machines provide a paper trail for the county's electronic voting machines and can be used in a manual recount.

"The vast majority of errors, mishandling and outright fraud occurred with mail-in ballots," Council Chairman Gary Nelson said. "I don't think we can discount that."

The cheaper alternative was to force all voters to use mail-in ballots - which would cost $35,000 - but a majority of the County Council members said they weren't ready to make that move.

There was no formal vote endorsing the purchase of the machines, only a majority of head nods on the council that included Nelson, John Koster and Dave Gossett.

"I hesitate to force people out of the polls," Gossett said.

About 216,000 county voters cast their ballots absentee - 61 percent. The balance - 142,000, or 39 percent - go to the polls. The number of voters who mail their ballots might climb to 70 percent by the end of 2006. The number of electronic voting machines will from 900 to 700 in that time, according to estimates.

County Councilman Kirke Sievers said he is ready to go to an all-mail ballot, a trend in 25 of Washington's 39 counties. However, the most populous Puget Sound counties - King, Pierce and Snohomish - are keeping their polling places.

State legislators proposed laws this year to force a uniform ballot throughout the state, but the measures failed. Officials wonder whether the measures will resurface next year.

"For the immediate future, Snohomish County will remain a polling place and absentee voting environment," county Auditor Bob Terwilliger said. He plans to contact the vendor who sells the ballot receipt machines.

The county's budget has yet to be written or approved, but the $1 million purchase should be made, given a four-month lag time for the voting machine printers, Nelson told county elections staff.

Gossett echoed the point: "The council is not going to be critical of an early order being placed," he said.

The county plans to order 875 machines to go with the electronic voting machines used in 139 polling places.

Voting trends show fewer voters choosing to go to the polls in coming years, and fewer electronic voting machines needed. That includes the receipt printers the county plans to buy.

If the trend bears out, Nelson said, the receipt machines can be resold to recoup the county's costs.

Elections manager Carolyn Diepenbrock said she will apply for $164,000 in federal voting grant funds to cover some of the costs of the receipt printers.